


like the pull of the tides

by AmbientMagic



Category: The Posterchildren - Kitty Burroughs
Genre: Alternate Universe - Shapeshifters, F/F, Merry Christmas have some lesbians, Selkies, Slow Burn, Universe 37, Werewolves
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-12-26
Updated: 2016-12-26
Packaged: 2018-09-12 02:54:33
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,701
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9052393
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AmbientMagic/pseuds/AmbientMagic
Summary: Sully's life has been turbulent but, these things come in cycles





	

In the forest on the other side of the lake from Foundation (where all good little posterchildren slept), there was nothing but the quiet sounds of the natural world. An owl hooted quietly, a fish splashed in the lake, and the nearly full moon glinted off a silvery blade just before it was thrown into a fallen tree with a satisfying thunk.

  
Sully grinned and picked up her next knife. Training with Petrov helped her to get the basics down, but there was no way to become perfect at this (very very illegal) hobby without practice. Sully needed to beat every motion into her brain and body with hours of repetition, until she knew every time, before the knife even left her hand, that there was no chance of her missing. That sort of accuracy was dearly earned, and Sully didn’t want anyone to be witness to her decreasingly frequent mistakes.

  
Besides, this close to the full moon, there was no way Sully could sleep anyway. The moon’s proximity pulled at her veins like the tide, urging her to change, to shift, to run. Kenneth was probably somewhere in the area chasing crows, she knew. He loved the change, shifted every night it was possible, but Sully wasn’t as fond of it.

  
Being a werewolf was certainly useful, yes, and one of the greatest blessings was that as a wolf, Sully couldn’t use her posterpower. She could actually live in the moment and simply be.

  
Unfortunately, that came with a drawback. Loss of posterpowers meant a loss of foreknowledge, and that meant a loss of control. Sully prided herself on her self-control, so most nights when the moon was almost-but-not-quite full, she resisted the urge to change for as long as she could. It was enough to know that her Pack, small as it was, was out there keeping an eye on things.

  
A splash from the water drew Sully’s attention to the shore. There was something laying on a large rock near the water. Sully grabbed her axe--her ‘hawk as Petrov kept calling it--and approached warily. There wasn’t anything in her ghost-sight that was about to happen, but water was another of Sully’s many blind spots. It was always in motion and never moved the same way twice. Even the lake, calm as it was, looked like a wild tempest. She tried not to look at the water and instead focused on the thing on the rocks.

  
At first, it looked like a dead animal, but there wasn’t enough there to make a full carcass. Sully sighed and let slip her control just a bit, sacrificing her posterpower for the edge to her senses the change brought her in its first stages. Didn’t smell like a dead animal either.

Sully moved closer, listening carefully with her ears that Kenneth liked to make fun of. Of course her fur was long as a wolf--she kept it long as a posthuman, didn’t she? But apparently the way her ears started to grow long blonde fur during the change was funny if you were a boy.

  
Sully’s sight was better now, though the world had lost color. She reached the thing on the ground and picked it up. It was the skin of an animal, all right. Sully picked it up and sniffed it before her eyes grew wide.

  
It was a selkie skin.

  
Sully dropped it and backed up several steps, hands up as if the skin had been hot. The Pack back home hadn’t mentioned any selkies at Foundation. She might be a werewolf from the sticks, but she knew her manners, dammit. She would have greeted the other long ago if she’d known. She forced down the change, feeling her senses lessen and her posterpower returning, just in time to see someone crash through the brush.

  
Sully registered a blur of red and brown before reality caught up to the future and Ofelia crashed through the undergrowth. The red-band Beta was wearing a red two piece swimsuit, and her wet hair indicated that the selkie had come directly from the water.

  
Of course. Touching a selkie’s skin would immediately call her to it. No selkie wanted to end up as a captive bride. Being tied to a skin must be difficult.

  
Ofelia was standing there, arms akimbo, dripping menacingly at Sully for all she was four inches shorter than the Alpha. “What are you doing here, Ida Mae?” she demanded. “Students shouldn’t be on this side of the lake.”

  
Sully flushed a dull red and dropped her eyes. “I was practicing,” she muttered. She was suddenly acutely aware that Ofelia was wearing just a few scraps of bright red spandex, and didn’t seem to be self-conscious about her body at all. Sully, even with her flat stomach and toned arms, never went swimming without a T-shirt and shorts to cover up in. With an effort, she forced herself to make eye contact with Ofelia. It was the polite thing to do. “I’m sorry for touching your skin, and for not greeting you earlier, cousin. Our Pack didn’t know there were any selkies at Foundation.”

  
Ofelia flipped from angry to confused, looking up at Sully with wide eyes. “Pack? Cousin? How do you know what I am?”

\-----

  
Sully’s mind raced. This was not her strong suit--her little brother had always done the talking when other packs came through their territory--but she'd do her best, dammit. “I'm a member of the Lost Creek Pack in West Virginia. I'm the Alpha while Kenneth and I are here at Foundation, so come to me if you have any business to take care of.” Her Pack status, like her Alpha rank here at Foundation, was always in question, so it was best to establish early on that she was in charge, not Kenneth.

  
Ofelia stood there, dripping thoughtfully. _Thank the Moon she's not a busy thinker_ , Sully thought. She was nearly still in Sully’s ghost-sight, much easier to see than Petrov or Kenneth ever were. Sully took the opportunity to look her over. Short and plump, with dark eyes still twinkling in the moonlight, Ofelia looked every bit a selkie. Even without her webbed hands and frankly alarming teeth, there was something supernatural about the girl.

  
Ofelia was getting ready to talk. Sully pulled her attention back to the other poster and waited. A second later she began to speak.  
“Okay,” she started. “So you know I'm a selkie.” Sully nodded. “Which means you've met a selkie before?” There was something in her voice Sully couldn't place.

  
“I haven't, no.” Sully tried to smile. “In the mountains there aren't many sea-shifters. I know all the traditions, though,” she added defensively. “And we all learned the scent, just in case.”

  
“But there are more selkies out there?”

  
“Well yeah. Have you not met any outside your own Pod?”

  
“I haven't met any,” Ofelia said quietly.

  
“You...none? Not any? But what about your family?” Sully was flabbergasted. She couldn't imagine being without the Pack. Even here in Foundation she had Kenneth, and even though some days she didn't care for him much, she knew he always had her back. That sense of belonging ran deeper than family. If she was without them… Sully shuddered.

  
Ofelia turned away. “I'm adopted,” she said shortly. “My mom is great, but she's not like me. She's not a selkie.”

  
“You don't have a Pod at all?”

  
Ofelia’s dark hair rippled as she shook her head. “No. I didn't even know for sure this wasn't just part of my posterpower until you started talking about Packs and Pods and cousins and shit.  I mean, there are stories about selkies, but--” She hesitated. “Ida Mae, are you… When you say Pack do you mean…”

  
Sully shrugged restlessly. “I mean I'm a werewolf. From the Lost Creek Pack in West Virginia. Well met, cousin,” she added formally. “Kenneth and I have established territory here on this side of the lake, but you're free to hunt wherever you like.” Technically she didn't have authority to offer another Pod free reign in their territory, but… “And… If you have any questions, I mean, about werewolves or selkies or whatever, I'll probably be here. If you want to come by anytime around the full moon. Not the night of,” Sully added hastily. “I'll be hunting with Kenneth that night. But after. If you wanna talk, well. You know where to find me now.”

  
Why did she keep going on like that? Usually Sully said the minimum number of words needed not to seem hostile, and here she was gushing to the red-band Beta. She flushed a dull red in confusion, cursing her light skin for blushing every two seconds. At least the shadows could mask it, a little.

  
Ofelia smiled, a real grin like Sully had never seen on her before. It showed off her teeth, which the selkie was usually careful to hide. Sully returned the favor by slipping her control, just a bit, and giving Ofelia a smile every bit as toothy back. The werewolf’s eyes flashed amber in the moonlight for a moment before Sully reasserted herself and they faded to their normal blue.

  
“Well at least I know you’re telling the truth now,” Ofelia said cheerfully, like people turned all sharp and pointy on a regular basis around her. She picked up her pelt and slung it around her shoulders casually. “I’ll come see you here tomorrow, yeah? Once I manage to process all of this, I’m sure I’ll have lots of questions. You don’t mind, do you?” she asked, looking unsure for the first time since she’d appeared, dripping, in the woods.

  
Sully shook her head immediately, before she could even think about it. “I don’t mind,” she said dumbly. There was so much she wanted to add: _after all, you don’t even have a Pack, you need someone; I can’t seem to stop talking to you anyway; it’d be nice to have someone else besides Kenneth who’s like us_. But she’d embarrassed herself enough today. Instead, she started gathering her wild hair into a ponytail and watched Ofelia slip into the lake without a splash.

**Author's Note:**

> I almost never post unfinished works because I'm really bad about finishing them, so please yell at me if you want more chapters!


End file.
